Police say it was in the laundry room at the Ashton Place apartments where a mom claims her four-year-old son was sexually assaulted by a maintenance man. But tenants and workers at the complex say they're not buying that story.
"They're not telling the truth," said apartment manager Maria Mozqueda. "To me, what they are saying, I mean, that is so serious."
Mozqueda is among those defending the accused maintenance man, Oswaldo Ramirez, 48.
Police say the child's mother claims she let her son play in the courtyard while she was preparing lunch late last month. Court documents show the woman told investigators Ramirez lured the boy into the laundry room with some marbles and allegedly removed the child's clothing.
"I guess they got something against him, because of some problems they have with him fixing their apartment with some stuff, and they told me he doesn't know how to work," Mozqueda said. "You know, they complain about him."
Investigators say the child's mom told them when she went searching the complex looking for her son, Ramirez allegedly promised the child candy if he kept quiet and didn't answer his mom's calls.
Maintenance man Chano Galvan said, "He's not the guy they say he is."
Galvan says Ramirez is not the guy the victim's family's painting him to be. Galvan worked at the complex and says he was working with Ramirez the day the alleged assault happened.
"He's come to have dinner at my house," Galvan said. "I have children of my own."
Galvan says that like other tenants there, they've invited the accused man into their homes for dinner numerous times to eat.
As Ramirez sits in jail charged with super aggravated sexual assault of a child, tenants and complex staff say they plan on finding ways to help clear the man's name. Ramirez's bond's been set at $100,000.
